Crusade approach: protests may start in Armenia after Karapetyan's detention
Protests may intensify in Armenia after the detention of Russian businessman Samvel Karapetyan, the country's parliament told Izvestia. Residents supporting the businessman were already gathering outside the courthouse. Samvel Karapetyan was charged with publicly calling for the seizure of power. At the same time, on the night of June 18, after searches, he was taken to the main criminal police department. Later, the court decided to detain him for two months. Earlier, Karapetyan promised to intervene in the conflict between the Armenian authorities and the church, which has a difficult relationship with the Prime Minister of the republic.
The situation around Karapetyan's detention
On June 18, Samvel Karapetyan, a Russian businessman, president and founder of the Tashir Group of companies, was charged with publicly calling for the seizure of power. The Investigative Committee of Armenia told Izvestia that a petition has been submitted to the court for the use of detention against Karapetyan as a preventive measure. As a result, the court decided to detain Karapetyan for two months.
At the same time, the entrepreneur does not admit guilt. On June 17, Armenian security forces raided Karapetyan's Yerevan home, which for many years had been the largest patron of the church. After that, hundreds of people gathered at the house, supporting him. The businessman's brother said that 45 people were eventually detained. Karapetyan is ranked 44th in the Forbes ranking of Russian billionaires, with an estimated net worth of $3.2 billion. The businessman owns the Tashir Group of companies, as well as the Rio shopping mall network.
The searches and detention of Karapetyan took place immediately after he supported the Armenian Apostolic Church (AAC) after harsh criticism of it from the current authorities. Karapetyan said earlier that "a small group, forgetting the Armenian history, the thousand-year history of the Armenian Church, attacked the Armenian Church, the Armenian people."
"I will fight for the shrines of the Armenian people with all my strength, wherever I am and no matter what happens. I will not allow anyone, under any pretext or for any purpose, to encroach on our shrines," the businessman said.
Obviously, when talking about a "small group", the entrepreneur was referring to the current authorities. Indeed, back in late May, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan spoke negatively about the state of the churches. Then he called them "closets filled with garbage." Later, he stated that Catholicos of All Armenians Garegin II had violated celibacy. The prime minister called on him to leave his post altogether. According to Pashinyan, the Catholicos has a child and, if necessary, he is ready to provide evidence.
After Karapetyan's detention, the Supreme Spiritual Council of the Armenian Apostolic Church said that Pashinyan had launched "another campaign" against the church.
Catholicos of All Armenians Garegin
Russia is closely monitoring the situation around Russian citizen Karapetyan. "We will provide him with the necessary assistance so that all his legitimate rights are respected," said Maria Zakharova, the official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry.
Karapetyan himself said after his detention that he did not intend to give up his position. "I will never give up my principles and values, because they are based on Armenia itself, boundless respect and love for our Homeland, our traditions, our history, our church," the entrepreneur said.
Meanwhile, on June 18, it became known about the dismissal of the head of the country's National Security Service, Armen Abazyan. Acting head of the service, Pashinyan appointed Andranik Simonyan. Local media reported that the dismissal occurred after Abazyan refused to detain Karapetyan due to lack of grounds for it. Nikol Pashinyan also announced his intention to nationalize the company "Electric Networks of Armenia", owned by Karapetyan.
The situation in the republic is currently heating up. A large number of supporters of the detainee gathered outside the courthouse on the afternoon of June 18. It is possible that protests may start in the republic, Gegham Manukyan, a deputy from the opposition Armenia faction, tells Izvestia.
— There have been more and more protests in Armenia lately. And now anything can happen. On June 17, several hundred people gathered at Karapetyan's house, and this is the thermometer. This shows the discontent of the population," he stressed.
The conflict between the Armenian authorities and the Church
Protests are indeed not uncommon in Armenia. At the same time, many of the actions are somehow connected with disagreements between the authorities of the republic and the church. It is worth emphasizing that the Armenian Atomic Energy Center is an important state institution that currently maintains independence from the Pashinyan government. The country's Constitution clearly states that religious organizations are separate from the State. At the same time, more than 90% of the Armenian population are Christian believers. Formally, the republic is a secular state. However, article 18 of the Constitution states that "Armenia recognizes the exclusive mission of the Armenian Apostolic Holy Church as the national Church in the spiritual life of the Armenian people, in the development of their national culture and the preservation of their national identity."
The Armenian Apostolic Church has been in conflict with Pashinyan for several years, and spiritual leaders have even called for the resignation of the prime minister. One of the most high-profile actions took place in 2024, when protesters opposed the delimitation of the border with Azerbaijan in the Tavush region. The leader of the unrest was the head of the Tavush diocese of the Armenian Apostolic Church, Archbishop Bagrat Galstanyan. First, he led a march from the line of contact to the capital, and then he held more than one rally of thousands in Yerevan.
Bagrat Galstanyan at the protests in Yerevan
Despite the fact that the protests subsided in 2024, the Armenian Church also reminds of itself in the international arena: in May 2025, an international conference was held in Switzerland, where issues of preserving the Armenian spiritual and cultural heritage were discussed. At the event, Catholicos Karekin II said that ethnic cleansing had taken place in Karabakh and the region had been occupied. This position of the Armenian church is obviously completely unprofitable for Pashinyan, who has been pursuing a course of warming relations with Azerbaijan for a long time.
In addition, parliamentary elections are scheduled in the republic in 2026. Although the Church cannot be considered as a powerful political force, it may well urge the population to support the opposition. A conflict with the church could significantly undermine the already weak positions of the ruling party and Pashinyan.
"The elections are still a year away, but the conflict with the church will, of course, greatly affect Pashinyan's position,— Gegham Manukyan tells Izvestia.
Cathedral of the Armenian Apostolic Church in Moscow
The rating of the ruling party "Civil Contract" is now falling. Only 11.3% of Armenian citizens support it, according to an opinion poll conducted in January 2025 by the Armenian Gallup International Association. This is the lowest figure since 2018, said Aram Navasardyan, head of the sociological structure.
If Pashinyan "fails to break Karapetyan, he may get a new influential opposition figure in the run-up to the elections," Nikolai Silaev, a senior researcher at the MGIMO Center for Caucasus and Regional Security Problems, tells Izvestia.
— This does not mean that Karapetyan will go to the polls himself, especially since he has Russian citizenship. But I think that Pashinyan risks getting a new influential opposition figure with money, with a strong ideological positioning, since he is a supporter of the church, and with his own ideological resources," the expert says.
The appearance of Karapetyan can greatly change the pre-election situation, Silayev concluded. Karapetyan's detention will negatively affect Pashinyan's rating ahead of the parliamentary elections, Andrei Areshev, an expert on the South Caucasus, told Izvestia. At the same time, in his opinion, it is difficult to predict who may eventually become the main competitor of the current prime minister next year.
Other factors can seriously affect the rating of the head of government, such as building relations with neighboring Azerbaijan and concluding a peace agreement with Baku. In addition, residents of the country are closely watching how Pashinyan will build relations with other countries of the post-Soviet region, including Russia and Belarus. In general, it will be important what position Yerevan will take on many international issues, including the country's future membership in the CSTO (currently Armenia's participation is frozen).
The relative setbacks on the world stage, the severance of ties with the closest allies, combined with the conflict with the church, which plays an important role in the life of the country, can affect the political ambitions of the current prime minister. Especially considering that the struggle against the clergy is now taking place in other countries of the post—Soviet space, and such actions by the authorities are mostly perceived as a manifestation of the weakness of state institutions. We are talking about Moldova and, above all, Ukraine, where the persecution of the UOC began after 2014. However, it is not worth drawing a parallel between the situation in Armenia and the situation in these two countries, warns Dmitry Sidorov, Head of the Department of Foreign Regional Studies at MGLU.
— In my opinion, it is not worth putting an equal sign between the actions of the authorities in relation to the church in these republics and in Armenia. In Ukraine and Moldova, the authorities set themselves the goal of getting rid of the influence of the Moscow Patriarchate," he believes.
But for Pashinyan, most likely, it will be enough to change the Catholicos to a figure loyal to the current authorities, the expert concluded.
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